Free Republic

Leadership: As Palin jousts with Biden on energy independence, the government reports that we lead the world in energy reserves. From oil to gas to coal, we are sitting on prosperity. So why are we importing anything? One of the interesting sidelights of the NY-23 race was an exchange on energy independence between Vice President Joe Biden and the former governor of energy-rich Alaska, Sarah Palin. Biden, who came in to campaign for Democrat Bill Owens, was reminded of the issue of energy. "The fact of the matter is that Sarah Palin thinks the answer to energy was 'Drill, baby,...

OSLO (AFP) – Norwegian energy group Statoil said Wednesday it was selling some of its US offshore oil assets to China's state-owned CNOOC, marking the first step by a Chinese energy major into the US market. The sale, announced along with Statoil's quarterly results, involves a limited stake for the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) in four exploitation licences for deepwater blocks bought in 2007 and 2008. "On 29 October Statoil signed a farm down agreement with the Chinese company CNOOC involving a number of Statoil's leases in the Gulf of Mexico," Statoil said in its third-quarter earnings statement....

The United States could be energy independent if it possessed the collective political will to make it happen. After all, the country has the largest energy reserves on earth, according to a recently-released Congressional Research Service report.

The United States has largest energy reserves on Earth, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service. As shown in the charts below, the U.S. has 1,321 billion barrels of oil (or barrels of oil equivalent for other sources of energy) when combining its recoverable natural gas, oil and coal reserves. While Russia is a close second with 1,248 billion barrels, other energy producing nations are far behind. No. 3 is Saudi Arabia (543 billion barrels), followed by China (494 billion barrels), Iran (426 billion barrels) and Canada (221 billion barrels.)

THE Federal Government told scientists monitoring the huge oil leak off Australia's northern coast to focus on the Indonesian side of the leaking well. The instruction meant waters closer to the Australian coast, which contain more biodiversity and include important whale habitats, were not assessed for oil contamination in a report that the federal Environment Department released on Friday. To complicate matters, fire broke out yesterday on the oil rig, which has been leaking oil into the Timor Sea for 10 weeks. Oil field operator PTTEP Australasia said the West Atlas rig and Montara well-head platform were on fire. No...

BP Restarts Texas City Refinery Reformer -Filing Sun Nov 1, 2009 5:20pm EST HOUSTON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - BP Plc (BP.L) (BP.N) began restarting Ultraformer No. 4 at its 475,000 barrel per day (bpd) Texas City, Texas, refinery on Sunday, according to a notice filed on Saturday with state pollution regulators.[snip]

The buck (or the pound, in this case) stops at the desk of perpetually embattled British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. According to numerous reports in newspapers in the U.K. and worldwide, a clandestine oil-for-prisoners deal with Libya facilitated the recent “compassionate release” of convicted terrorist Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi from the Scottish prison where he was serving a life sentence for having bombed a commercial airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 270 people.Despite weeks of Brown’s denials and pretended offense at the very suggestion that either his government or the government of Scotland would ever make such a behind-the-scenes...

The oil and gas services industry of Western Canada hit bottom in the second quarter and is now making its slow way back, the chairman and CEO of transport and oilfield services company Mullen Group declared Thursday. But the rehiring of 1,100 Mullen employees and contractors--some 20 per cent of its staff--whose jobs disappeared in the past 12 months will not occur until "ridiculously stupid" pricing by competitors is halted, said Murray Mullen. "We have, in my opinion, seen the bottom. It is tough, at times it's ugly. It's particularly difficult on our people. But we are survivors of what...

North Dakota sits on one of the largest pools of oil in North America. The Bakken Shale Formation is estimated to hold nearly four billion barrels of oil that can be extracted. And now, a new batch of oil just under the Bakken is adding even more interest to oil exploration in the state. The Bakken Shale Formation has created excitement in western North Dakota - the kind of excitement that leads to things like bumper stickers. But even as oil companies scramble to tap into the Bakken, there's a new oil play brewing - it's called the Three Forks-Sanish...

Oil Futures Give Back Some Of Previous Day's SurgeCrude still set to gain more than 11% for October as dollar slumps.Oct. 30, 2009, 11:15 a.m. EDT Polya Lesova, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures dipped on Friday after a 3.1% surge in the previous session on news the U.S. economy returned to growth, as a mixed batch of economic reports led traders to reassess the outlook for energy demand. Crude oil for December delivery was recently down 80 cents, or 1%, at $79.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Still, oil has gained more than 11%...

Saudi Arabia dealt a big blow to the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday when it said it was going to start using a new benchmark for oil prices launched last May by the U.K. based oil-trading company, Argus Media. Instead of using WTI as a reference point for its deals with U.S. customers, which it has done since 1994, the Saudis are switching to a basket of crudes called the Argus Sour Crude Index. The new basket will include sour crudes produced in the Gulf Coast and is expected to be a better reflection of global crude markets. The reason...

Shell Sees No 'Quick Recovery' As Energy Company Cuts 5,000 JobsRoyal Dutch Shell is “not expecting a quick recovery” after shedding 5,000 jobs in a global restructuring and seeing profits drop 73pc on lower oil and gas prices. By Rowena Mason Published: 7:59AM GMT 29 Oct 2009 Europe’s biggest energy company made $2.99bn in profits on a cost of supplies basis – a measure that strips out the effect of changing inventories – slightly beating analyst expectations. Revenue fell 43pc to $76bn. Peter Voser, the chief executive who took over in July, said 5pc of the oil giant’s staff would...

Exxon Mobil, the world’s biggest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday that its profit fell 68 percent in the third quarter as oil and natural gas prices slumped from last year’s highs. The company earned $4.73 billion, or 98 cents a share in the quarter, less than analysts had expected. That compares with earnings of $14.83 billion in the period a year ago, the company’s best quarter ever. Exxon became the world’s most profitable corporation in 2008, earning $45 billion with oil averaging $100 a barrel. But the drop in prices has hurt Exxon and most other oil companies, as...

Poll: Offshore drilling Should Florida allow drilling for oil within five miles of its Gulf Coast beaches? Yes No

Released on October 28, 2009 (Next Release on November 4, 2009) Changing Distillate Export Patterns Distillate (including diesel) is the second largest petroleum product consumed in the United States, used for everything from fuel for trucks and trains to residential heating and even a small amount of power generation. Although still overshadowed by gasoline consumption within the United States, global trends have been rapidly increasing the demand for distillate. This is causing major changes in the United States’ role in the world distillate market. For many years, the United States was a net importer of relatively small volumes of distillate,...

BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota has surpassed Louisiana as the fourth-largest oil-producing state in the nation, the U.S. Energy Department says. The agency's Energy Information Administration said North Dakota produced 6.38 million barrels of crude in May, edging Louisiana, which had 6.34 million barrels for the month. Oklahoma was ranked fifth, at 5.7 million barrels for that month, according to the most recent figures. Oil production data typically lags at least two months. Steven G. Grape, an Energy Department petroleum engineer, said Wednesday that North Dakota averaged 206,000 barrels daily in May, compared with 205,000 barrels for Louisiana. North Dakota's...

Domestic oil refiners kept up their attack of climate legislation, saying a Senate bill under consideration could increase gas prices. Domestic oil refiners kept up their attack Wednesday of climate legislation, saying a Senate bill under consideration could increase gas prices. The group, among the fiercest critics of the measure, said the proposal could add 77 cents a gallon, or around 30 percent above today’s prices. Democrats on a key Senate panel shot back, saying the industry’s estimate is based on an inflated projection of the price of permits companies will have to hold to cover their carbon emissions. A...

Greenpeace is running rampant across Alberta’s oil sands. In the past few weeks, 37 activists have been arrested in a spate of incidents targeting North America’s most important energy resource. The most recent occurred on Oct. 5 when 19 activists stormed an upgrader in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. They tied themselves to equipment which is used to transform heavy oil into gasoline. The protesters unfurled banners reading “Climate Crime” and “Climate SOS” to draw attention to an industry they say is killing the planet. In September, two-dozen Greenpeace commandoes kayaked down the Athabasca River to intercept a Suncor bridge where conveyor...

As president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute (API), Jack Gerard is the face of the oil and gas industry on Capitol Hill. He’s well-dressed, well-coiffed, Republican and white. Gerard embodies many of the stereotypes most often associated with oil industry execs. That’s one reason why Gerard is trying to ensure his face isn’t the only one lawmakers see. API is one of several companies and business groups that have made an extra push this year to turn to rank-and-file employees in hopes of adding a populist appeal to their corporate campaigns in Washington. The oil trade group has...

The Alberta firm that put “fire in the ground” oil production on the map with successful tests in a Athabasca bitumen deposit opened operations in Saskatchewan on Tuesday. And what it hopes to learn at this second test site for toe-to-heel air injection (THAI) — this time in a conventional heavy oil deposit which runs south from Lloydminster into the Kerrobert, Sask. area, east of Hardisty — could help Petrobank tap into a global market. “Most of the world’s heavy oil is similar to what is found in the Alberta/Saskatchewan belt, so what we learn from Kerrobert will have implications...

U.S. consumers turned decidedly more pessimistic in October, according to a report released Tuesday, with households increasingly worried about job prospects. The Conference Board, a private research group, said its monthly Consumer Confidence Index fell to 47.7 this month, from a revised 53.4 in September, which was originally reported as 53.1. The current month's reading was well below economists' projections of 53.2, according to a survey conducted by Dow Jones Newswires. The downturn in consumer confidence at this stage of the recovery is to be expected, as it has occurred in previous recoveries (please see chart below), and does not...

"With 3 percent of the world's oil reserves, the U.S. cannot drill its way to energy security," then-presidential nominee Barack Obama wrote on his campaign website in 2008. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stated, "All told, the U.S. has only 1.6 percent of world's known oil supply." And in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) added, "The math is simple: America has just 3 percent of the world's oil reserves, but Americans use a quarter of its oil." The President, Ms Pelosi and their Democratic party followers are lying, Republican Senator Inhofe, ranking member of the Senate Committee on...

ACRAMENTO — As oil companies continue to reap record profits amid strained state revenues, a pair of Democratic lawmakers are hoping to tap into their deep pockets by installing an oil severance tax that could relieve growing pressures to cut more state services. Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Long Beach, introduced a bill Monday called the Fair Share Act, that would impose a 10 percent oil severance fee on extractions from California wells to bring in $1.5 billion to the state's coffers. A similar bill that has already cleared one committee, by Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Fremont, would impose a 9.9 percent fee,...

Ghana, a leader in democracy and economic development in Africa, will soon begin to receive large amounts of oil revenues. In a memo to the country's president, Todd Moss describes a practical way for Ghana to avoid the corruption and conflict that is often associated with oil revenues — direct cash distribution. The "oil curse" has brought authoritarianism, conflict, corruption and poverty to too many countries. Your challenge is to put in place a system for managing oil income that protects and advances your country's impressive gains. Recommendations for a separate oil fund and increased transparency are good ones. But...

I'm not in the position for making any huge investments, and this might be in the category of just plain ignorant, but I figure this proposal might at least prompt some interesting discussion, and if its plausible, someone should do it: The Tesla gets about 220 miles per charge. Great... if you're going somewhere less than four hours away. But if the S-class (a $50,000 "family car") is going to be someone's main car, they're certainly going to want to take longer trips with it. The problem is the car takes 8 hours to charge with 110 volts. By doubling...

Ecology: The administration creates the mother of all protected habitats for a species whose numbers have increased since Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." It's our hopes for energy independence that are drowning. When filmmaker Phelim McAleer, whose documentary "Not Evil Just Wrong" takes apart the myths of global warming, got to ask Gore a question at the annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists, McAleer brought up the nine critical errors in Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth." A British court two years ago listed them and said they must be righted before the film could be shown in schools...

In what could prove to be bad news for local oil producers and those seeking employment in the West Kern County oil patch, California Assemblymen Pedro Nava (D - Santa Barbara) has called for a 10 percent oil severance tax on all oil produced in California. "California oil companies are getting a free ride," said Nava. "California is the only major oil producing state that does not charge a severance tax on oil extraction. California has been giving away public assets to Big Oil for far too long." Nava, who is a democrat candidate for California Attorney General next year,...

HA NOI — Three Vietnamese banks will jointly provide a loan of up to US$51 million to the PetroVietnam Exploration and Production Corporation (PVEP) to exploit oil and gas in the Ca Ngu Vang (Gold Tuna) oilfield. Under a credit agreement signed in Ha Noi on Thursday with the Viet Nam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB), Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) and the Sai Gon-Ha Noi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB), the PVEP would use the five-year loan to pay for the development and exploitation of oil and gas at the oilfield, located southeast of Viet Nam’s continental...

World Recovery Is In The Hands Of OPEC Andrew Butter October 25, 2009 In a recent interview posted here, Professor Nouriel Roubini said: I worry that oil is going to go up above $100 for reasons that have nothing to do with the fundamentals of supply and demand. Oil at $100 would have the same negative effects on the global economy as oil did at $145 last year. Last year, when oil was at $145, the global economy was still growing. Right now it has collapsed, and is recovering. Oil pushing above $100 would have nasty, negative real trade effects...

WASHINGTON — A leading energy developer said the United States has been excluded from Iraq's revived energy market. ShareThis T. Boone Pickens told Congress that U.S. companies were losing opportunities in the Iraqi crude oil and natural gas sectors to competitors from China and Europe. The senior executive said the United States could lose all influence in the Iraqi oil sector after the military withdrawal in 2011. "They're opening them [oil fields] up to other companies all over the world," Pickens told the Congressional Natural Gas Caucus on Oct. 21. "We leave there with the Chinese getting the oil," he...

Wall Street is up to its old tricks again. One year later, one of the key excesses that led our consumer-based economy into an historic downturn is being abused in the exact same way that got us $147-a-barrel oil last summer. Worse, many in the media are again getting the facts wrong on oil prices and demand— Forget what Cambridge Energy Research Associates reported on Oct. 13. By its calculations oil demand actually peaked in 2005 among the industrialized members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation, while in the U.S. alone oil usage has dropped by 2 million barrels a...

North Dakota oil production has reached new highs and the two month lag in monthly statistics will likely show about 250,000 barrels of oil per day in October or November. > BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) said in Sept 10, 2009its Shenzi oil field in the Gulf of Mexico was exceeding nominal capacity of 100,000 barrels per day, and is achieving sustained rates of 120,000 barrels a day. Shenzi started production in March this year, coming on stream three months ahead of schedule and within budget. >

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the presidential “Facing Tomorrow" conference Tuesday night that the world must end its dependence on oil "that strengthens terror and damages planet Earth.” He said that the dependence on “black gold” raises the price of oil and stunts economic growth in Africa and other poor areas of the world, as well as in developed countries.

Oil prices could be slammed in the near-term by a growing glut of diesel in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. This oversupply of diesel could push refiners to cut back on the amount of crude oil they consume as inputs, reducing oil demand. Financial Times: In the US, stockpiles of middle distillates (which, alongside diesel, includes heating oil) are at their highest in decades. Europe faces a surplus of distillates so great that traders are booking tankers to store it offshore after running out of inland deposits. The International Energy Agency, the industrialised countries' oil watchdog, says the volume of...

China, Russia, Japan & France are working with oil producers in the Middle East to permit currencies other than the U.S. $ to be used to pay for oil. This basket of currencies will include the Japanese Yen, the Chinese Yuan, and the €. It is reported in leading U.K. newspapers that this payment may be in a ‘new' currency that is made up of these currencies. It is also reported that a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar would form part of this ‘basket' While we...

Twice an Exxon Valdez spill worth of oil seeps into the Gulf of Mexico every year, according to a new study that will be presented January 27 at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. But the oil isn't destroying habitats or wiping out ocean life. The ooze is a natural phenomena that's been going on for many thousands of years, according to Roger Mitchell, Vice President of Program Development at the Earth Satellite Corporation (EarthSat) in Rockville Md. "The wildlife have adapted and evolved and have no problem dealing with the oil," he said. Oil that finds its...

The Interior Department has given Shell approval to drill oil exploration wells in two leaseholds in the Beaufort Sea, which could lead to the first drilling in more than a decade in this area off the north coast of Alaska. Shell Alaska general manager Pete Slaiby hailed the decision as "another positive step towards the ultimate goal of drilling in 2010." But environmental groups criticized the move. "There is no safe way to drill in the Beaufort Sea," said Athan Manuel, director of lands protection at the Sierra Club. "Cleaning up an oil spill in the Arctic's broken sea ice...

Set aside Sarah Palin’s calls for “drill baby drill” strategies on the domestic front, for a moment. The ironic results of our foreign excursions of late has been to clear the way for China’s oil company, CNPC to produce more oil and gas. Unlike other oil companies, when you see their logo, witness a country drilling, not a company. Today, President Obama offered incentives to the government of Sudan to behave and cooperate with international peace efforts (see this article in the Christian Science Monitor). Sudan has no need to take heed. China’s there making Sudan’s economy spin higher, improving...

Garry Kasparov gives the real reason as to why Russia has, and will never have, intentions to help us keep Iran in check.

Oil enters the marine environment from human activity and natural seeps. A National Academy of Science study recently estimated that about 47 percent of the oil entering the marine environment is a result of natural seepage from subsurface reservoirs. The Gulf of Mexico is an area where such natural seepage occurs at a very high rate. Of the 200,000 metric tons of oil seepage that is thought to occur each year, about 150,000 metric tons escapes from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico.

Crude-oil futures rose Monday for an eighth straight session, ending at a new one-year high near $80 a barrel as a weaker dollar and rising U.S. stocks stirred more bullish sentiment among energy traders. Crude for November delivery gained $1.08, or 1.4%, to $79.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange,

Since taking office as the President of the United States, President Obama has encountered crisis after crisis. His next major crisis will be oil prices. Read full article... http://newsflavor.com/politics/international-relations/next-major-obama-crisis/

Since taking office as the President of the United States, President Obama has encountered crisis after crisis. His next major crisis will be oil prices. Since taking office as the President of the United States, President Obama has encountered crisis after crisis. His next major crisis will be oil prices. If you listen to this White House this President has faced and solved more major crisis than any former President has faced during the 1st year of their Presidencies. People are getting tired of the boy who cried wolf and beginning to wonder if maybe some of these so called...

Iraq's cabinet has ratified a deal with two foreign energy companies to develop the giant southern oilfield in Rumaila.

Given that weÂ’re spending billions of stimulus dollars to rebuild our highways, it makes sense to think about what weÂ’ll be driving on them. For years to come, most of what we drive will be powered, at least in part, by diesel fuel or gasoline. To fuel that driving, we need access to oil. The less use we make of our own reserves, the more we will have to import, which leads to a number of harmful consequences. That means we need to drill here and drill now. We rely on petroleum for much more than just powering our vehicles:...

Link Only. This is what makes me fear for the Navy and the rest of the armed forces. The Navy has as much chance of realizing this as it does of landing a ship on the Klingon Homeworld by 2020. Stupifying ignorance and Greenism. Obama will repeal the laws of thermodynamics as soon as he finishes arming his National Civil Youth Corps. "The Great Green Fleet" will have to be powered by sails ands oars or run on pixie dust and unicorn droppings.

The Culver City Council on Monday unanimously approved a moratorium to halt drilling in the Inglewood Oil Field until next August, by when city officials hope to have drafted a new ordinance that ensures the public’s safety and welfare. The new moratorium will extend one that expires Oct. 8 by 10 months, until Aug. 23, 2010. Plains, Exploration & Production Company, the primary operator of the oil field, has already sent four notices of intent to drill new wells to the State Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources, even though the oil company agreed with the Los Angeles County...

Rising Oil Prices May Be The Forerunner To War Ron Coby Oct 16, 2009 9:45 am Traders’ fears that an impending attack on Iran by either the US or Israel is related to the rise in oil prices. The headlines are widely publicizing the new highs being made in gold. Soon the news may be directed to gushing gold in the energy space … Black Gold. Many of the fundamental reports I read on oil say that there’s an “oil glut”, and that the world is “swimming in oil”. That may in fact be true, but our motto at Coby...

I know Dart is extending light rail to D/FW Airport. Which is going to be great. Still, I can't help but wish Dallas would be on the cutting edge of something like this. Why aren't we building a high-speed airport train? We've talked about state-wide high-speed rail, but what about local high-speed train? How cool would it be to have a bullet train that goes from downtown Dallas to downtown Ft. Worth at over 125 mph? I'd take it. Comments Posted by Jeffrey J. Brown @ 7:58 AM Fri, Oct 16, 2009 This past weekend, at a conference in Denver,...

Given that we’re spending billions of stimulus dollars to rebuild our highways, it makes sense to think about what we’ll be driving on them. For years to come, most of what we drive will be powered, at least in part, by diesel fuel or gasoline. To fuel that driving, we need access to oil. The less use we make of our own reserves, the more we will have to import, which leads to a number of harmful consequences. That means we need to drill here and drill now. We rely on petroleum for much more than just powering our vehicles:...